Organizing the Nursery

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Home Depot & Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #AllAccessOrganizers  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

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I think I’ve mentioned this here once or a million times, but our house is pretty small.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE our house.  I love how it’s decorated. I love where it’s located.  I just love it.

But it is small.  In fact, we had plans to renovate and add on before the baby came, but we got into a bit of a time crunch and decided we’d wait to make more room (we’ll have to add on before baby #2).

So, to make room for this baby I had to get creative with organization.  We said goodbye to our guest room and turned into a nursery, which meant some of my clothes got put in the attic. But besides moving clothes, I came up with some other creative ways to store things that we need for Baby E.

Here’s what I did…

Changing Table Basket

Instead of a changing table, Baby E and I will share a dresser (some of my clothes have to stay in this room due to our tiny closets).  But using a dresser means that I have room for a basket to organize his diapers and diaper changing products (wipes, ointment, lotion, baby powder, boogie wipes, etc.).

Nursery Closet Organization

Baby E’s closet is literally the size of a phone booth, so Brad and I put up a second rod to store more clothes.  His clothes are so little that we can easily fit two rows of them here doubling the amount of clothes I can hang.

This closet won’t exist after the renovations so we don’t really need it to grow with Baby E.

I don’t remember where I first saw size organizers for a nursery closet, but I knew Etsy would be the place to find them.  For $8, I got these dividers which will save me lots of time and frustration trying to figure out what size his outfits are when dressing him.  Love them!

I got this idea from my cousin April, who has a three month old baby boy.  I simply put a shoe organizer on the back of the nursery door for smallish things.  I put small toys in it so I can grab them with one hand in a toy emergency, teethers, and some products like sunscreen and bug spray that I dont’ need to have out at all times, but will need at some point.

Crib with Drawer

I love our crib and I love that it has a drawer underneath it.  I store swaddles and sleepers in this large drawer.

If you’re a mommy then you know that babies just need a lot of stuff.  So in the end, I don’t have room for everything.  The crib drawer will only hold newborn and 0-3 month sleepers and the plastic drawers I have in the bottom of Baby E’s closet is full of onesies size newborn to 3-6 months.

Rubbermaid All Access Organizers

So to meet this organization challenge I’m using Rubbermaid All Access Organizers (available at Home Depot).  I’m storing all clothes that I don’t need right now and putting them in the attic.  I’d love to have these Rubbermaid containers in his room but did I mention that his closet is the size of a phone booth?

I love these containers for so many reasons.

  • They’re not gigantic.  All the containers I use to store clothes in the attic are huge and I can’t always get them up and down the attic stairs by myself. These Rubbermaid containers are easy to lift.
  • They are stackable and fit right on top of the other for easy storage.
  • They offer a great storage solution for people with any type of storage space. These would fit well in any of our closets if our closets weren’t already full.  My other containers have to go into the attic because they’re enormous.

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But my favorite part about these organizing bins is that they can be opened from the bottom or the top.

Do you know how many times a year I ransack my bins of clothes looking for something that may or may not be on the bottom of the storage bin? This also requires me to unstack the bins because they can only be opened from the top.

With the Rubbermaid All Access Organizers I can leave them stacked and simply open the clear plastic door to see what’s inside.  This makes it easy to take something from the bottom without emptying or ransacking the contents of the bin.

I love that the door is clear also so I can see what’s inside the bin.  I’m sure at some point, I’ll store something besides clothes in these bins and might need to be reminded what is inside.  With the clear door, I can just look inside to see what I stored months ago.

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Do you have any nursery organization tips?  If so, please share in the comments!